Hypocalinae

9. Hypocalinae

Adult characters. The characters highlighted here are derived from Holloway (2005) and Lafontaine & Schmidt (2010). Clypeofrons appears to be fully scaled, with beak-like long labial palpi, there is a pair of lobes between the first and second tergites; these are triangular, broad but rather shallow. The eighth segment of male is modified, but atypical. The scaphium has a narrow dorsal sclerotization. In Hypocala , uncus has highly complex ‘ears’ in most species. Valvae are somewhat rectangular, with variation in lobes and flanges; saccus is moderately developed to very long; aedeagus and vesica are very variable. In female genitalia, ductus bursae with basal area sclerotized and the membranous opens into corrugated corpus bursae, pyriform appendix bursa is also present.

Larval characters. The larva exhibits fully developed prolegs. It has a cylindrical shape along the abdominal segments, gradually narrowing towards the head at the thoracic region. In the early stages, larvae frequently create small shelters made of webbing within the leaves and ultimately pupate in a cell located in the soil ( Holloway 2005).

Diversity and distribution. Approximately 30 species in six genera: Aon Neumoegen, 1892 ; Goniapteryx Perty, 1833 ; Hypocala Guenée in Boisduval & Guenée, 1852; Hypsoropha Hübner, 1818 ; Indocala Rose & Srivastava, 1990 ; Psammathodoxa Dyar, 1921 . The genus Hypocala is distributed worldwide with its greatest representation in the Old World tropics, Indocala is endemic to India, whereas the other four genera are restricted to the New World. In India , nine species in two genera i.e., Hypocala and Indocala are reported.